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Drinking water from most Minn. cities' systems is safe

Minnesota health officials say most drinking water from municipal systems had safe levels of contaminants in the department's most recent round of testing.

The testing has yielded similar results since health officials first started the monitoring program in 1995, according to the Health Department's Stew Thornley.

"This seems to be about what we find, with approximately 10 municipal systems that have had a positive reading for coliform bacteria," said Thornley. "We sample for chemical type of contaminants -- the things that won't cause immediate illness, but if they're at an elevated level over a long period of time, they could increase a person's risk of having an adverse health effect."

One of the more common contaminants was coliform bacteria. Thornley says it's more likely to show up in smaller water systems, for a variety of reasons.

"Some of the smaller systems don't disinfect their water on a regular basis," he said. "Sometimes when repairs are done or things like that, something can happen. If there's a disinfectant in there, that can provide that additional protection to keep from having a problem."

Thornley says bigger water systems have the resources to disinfect more regularly.